The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved

Thompson is meeting Ralph Steadman for the first time while at the Kentucky Derby. Hunter writes about the havoc and chaos to which Ralph was exposed and the trouble that ensued from them drinking too much. Not once did Hunter mention he or anybody else had consumed LSD, or anything other than alcohol during on this trip. Later though, I learned in a documentary about Gonzo journalism, Hunter gave Steadman some magic mushrooms after picking him from the airport, and presumably due to the legality of the matter, wanted to keep their activities out of the press. While he was in Kentucky though, Steadman would draw cartoonish pictures of the locals exaggerating their features, and Thompson told him to stop showing his foul renderings to the people before he was hurt physically. Hunter's brother is one of the locals about to kick his ass because he kept insisting he showed him the wonderfully cruel caricature he drew, and in typical fashion, Hunter manages to defuse the situation with a can of bear mace.

Hunter went on this trip with the intentions of exposing the face of decadence and depravity in others, but him and Ralph both agreed they looked worse than anything Ralph had drawn while there. The story closes with them racing to the airport to see the "twisted pig-fucking" English-man off in the white convertible Thompson rented for the trip.